Promoting renewable energies - RETS Project

Only qualified regional government autonomy
is to be found in “decentralised states”, e.g.
Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden
(no authority to pass laws, hardly any autonomy).
It is especially in the small countries, such as
Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg or Malta, that the
regional level is virtually meaningless.
Decisions are taken only at the national and local
levels.
The local authority areas within the entire EU have an
average population of 20,000. There are however, some
countries, with very small local administrative units, e.g.
in France, Greece or Slovakia and others where
extremely large local area units are to be found such as
in Great Britain and Ireland. Relatively large local
authorities (those with a 15,000 to 30,000 population
average) are also to be found in Denmark, Sweden and
Finland as well as in the Netherlands and Poland.
The size of the local authorities plays an important role in
two respects. The smaller a local authority is, the
more likely it is that citizens take part in local
decision-making. However, with increase in size of
the local authority, its capability also increases and
with that the prospects of implementing energy
projects. There are also great variations in size within
the individual countries.
Local authority energy policy and
strategies
As described above, local authorities are the principal
agencies with responsibility for practical implementation
of EU decisions and directives. EU energy policy
regulations are therefore to be found again in the
energy policy of local government. Local energy policy
is understood as the energy policy of town, local
authorities, district councils and other forms of local
government. In contrast to the energy policy at the
national level, the opportunities for local decision makers
are restricted to the following areas:
Local authority support programmes for the
use of certain energy forms, e.g. natural gas or
district heating from their own power utilities, or in
the area of energy efficiency e.g. thermal
insulation. These are economically favourable on
a regional basis as these attract investment
which is largely realised in the region.
Advisory services for citizens are very effective
with the public and therefore politically popular.
The community can set up its own local energy
economy using public power utilities or other
organisational forms (e.g. public-private
partnerships). In most cases, the local public
utilities are admittedly only resellers of power and
natural gas, have however often their own power
production facilities, e.g. thermal power stations
and district heating networks. Public utilities also
operate photovoltaic systems, small power-heat
cogeneration plants, local heating networks and
biomass thermal power plants.
Energy policy at the local level can also support
the installation of private systems, e.g. by
making municipal roof areas available for
photovoltaic use at no or low cost. On the other
hand, local policy can inhibit the installation of
private systems.
In municipal energy management, local
government can optimise its own energy and
resource consumption in economic and
ecological terms. Conventional energy sources
can be replaced by renewable or localised
schemes and energy efficiency can be
maximised. For example, it can be profitable for
districts with large areas of forest to use the wood
from their own forestry as an energy source.
Advantages for local authorities
With the use of renewable energy, local authorities not
only have the opportunity to actively support necessary
environmental and climate change protection, they can
also increase their own room for manoeuvre in this way.
Creation of regional added value
The decentralised expansion of renewable energy
generates, for example, in German towns and districts,
a local added value of almost 6.8 billion Euros
(Institute for Ecological Economy Research, IÖW 6 ).
The decentralised expansion of renewable energy in
6
Institute for Futures Studies and Technology Assessment (IZT)
gGmbH, Erneuerbare Energien in Kommunen optimal nutzen –
Denkanstöße für die Praxis, October 2007
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kommunale_Energiepolitik; accessed on 29
November 2011
RETS Compendium – © 2012 RETS Consortium
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